[SPOILERS] - tales of Brennus, famous Chinese warlord

[Zero_1627]

Long-term considerations: is Music (Great Artist) worth researching with any priority? It's the least useful, but still a Great Person for free... But there's not much else useful in that tech. Can GA bulb something good? (if yes then it would be nice path!)

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Walkthrough national wonders:
Forbidden Palace: second Palace; no use on this map
Globe Theatre: no anger in city; useful, particularly in Shanghai (as Shanghai has lots of food and not that much Hills/pure production tiles); still, will it allow that many more _productive_ citizens?...
Hermitage: +100% Culture: not much use
Heroic Epic: +100% military production: a necessity in Shanghai!
Ironworks: up to +100% hammers, allows up to 3 Engineer specialists. Useful in Shanghai or in Beijing. It's very late, though - at Steel game may already be in ending phase. If we still are in play .
Moai Statues: unbuildable, no sea
Mt. Rushmore: -25% war weariness: not useful
National Epic: +100% GPP: useful, not earthshaking (mainly in Shanghai, as I plan to run a lot of specialists anyway). Will mean earlier GP (for settling or bulbing, probably). Available very soon.
National Park: no unhealth, removes access to Coal, extra specialists. Not much use, even if it wasn't so late.
Oxford University: +100% research: very useful in Guangzhou; will be some time till we research the tech, though
Red Cross: free Medic I for units: may be nice, but not earthshaking. And late.
Wall Street: +100% Gold: as Oxford
West Point: +4XP for military units; really nice, especially in Shanghai! Military Tradition is some time away, though.

So, preliminary wonder positioning is:
Beijing:
Shanghai: Heroic Epic
Guangzhou: Oxford, Wall Street

Wonders to consider:
National Epic (in Shanghai? May be of some use in Beijing, too!); available very soon!
Globe Theatre (in any city); will city be able to grow large enough that this is really useful? Available soon.
Ironworks: +50/100% hammers and engineer allowance are all very good, but it will be available late/very late...
West Point: +4XP is great, but again - available late
Red Cross: nice but not great and available late. I'd pass.

So we really have 3 slots (2 in Beijing, 1 in Shanghai) and 4 wonders to consider.
2 of wonders are soon: National Epic, Globe Theatre
2 are late: Ironworks, West Point
I think that specifically waiting for late wonders would be a mistake.

My plan is to build National Epic, wait with Globe Theatre (build if I see it's really needed). Then we'll have 1 or 2 slots free for 2 late national wonders I may want...
Question in my mind is really whether to build NE in Shanghai (more useful, I think) or Beijing (not as useful, but leaves more options for later - 1 slot free in both cities instead of 2 slots in Beijing). I think that getting more use out of NE is better, as Beijing will be able to use both later wonders.

[yuris125]

OK, I checked the save, here are my thoughts on national wonders

Beijing - Oxford and Heroic Epic. Beijing potentially has better production than Shanghai, it currently has 1 hammer less, but two unmined hills. Oxford is better in the capital because of Bureaucracy bonus

Shanghai - National Epic and Ironworks. It is by far the best food city we have, and as you rightly say, it will run out of good tiles to work soon. Ironworks (if we get there) work reasonably well with National Epic because of engineer slots

Guangzhou - Wall Street and Globe Theatre. The main benefit of Globe Theatre is the ability to draft without unhappiness. Guangzhou will never have the production to contribute to military build-up, but drafting Muskets and Rifles will be very useful (again, if we get there). Wall Street can't get in Beijing, so it should go to the next best commerce city

Great Artist will bulb Drama or Divine Right or its pre-reqs. He can bulb Nationalism, but Divine Rights and other religious techs have higher priority, and I don't see a way to set up a Nationalism bulb without discovering Divine Right. So I'd say it's not worth it. Bulb preference - http://www.civfanatics.com/civ4/strategy...e_tech.php

[yuris125]

On another note, I see we have unconnected silver and ivory, and should consider connecting them. We're approaching the happiness cap

Also, I would suggest prioritising Metal Casting and possibly Code of Laws over Monarchy. Metal Casting for Forges, which will give +3 happy (assuming we connect the silver) in addition to production bonus. Code of Laws mostly for Caste System, but our maintenance is high enough to justify Courthouses too

[Zero_1627]

Celtic HA and Dog Soldier moved to our borders. I decided to attack: Chariot first versus Horse Archer, died as expected (26% to win) but HA has 0.2 strength remaining. Then next Chariot at Dog Soldier, at 80%... and died barely scratching him !!! I have only a Spear in range, it's not appriopriate for attacking slightly wounded Dog Soldier... That wasn't a good exchange.
Remaining Chariots moved closer.

On another note, I see we have unconnected silver and ivory, and should consider connecting them. We're approaching the happiness cap

I see them, had no free workers to do it with. As soon as they're available (with escort, both resources are right on the border) I'll connect them.

Also, I would suggest prioritising Metal Casting and possibly Code of Laws over Monarchy

I consider it for some time, but didn't have to make this decision yet. For now I discovered Monotheism - it'll not delay Calendar and Monotheism is available sooner .
Certainly CoL before metal Casting, though - and mainly for Courthouses , as they'll mean serious monetary saves.

OK, I checked the save, here are my thoughts on national wonders

Beijing - Oxford and Heroic Epic. Beijing potentially has better production than Shanghai, it currently has 1 hammer less, but two unmined hills. Oxford is better in the capital because of Bureaucracy bonus

Shanghai - National Epic and Ironworks. It is by far the best food city we have, and as you rightly say, it will run out of good tiles to work soon. Ironworks (if we get there) work reasonably well with National Epic because of engineer slots

Guangzhou - Wall Street and Globe Theatre. The main benefit of Globe Theatre is the ability to draft without unhappiness. Guangzhou will never have the production to contribute to military build-up, but drafting Muskets and Rifles will be very useful (again, if we get there). Wall Street can't get in Beijing, so it should go to the next best commerce city

Globe Theatre in Guangzhou for drafting - that's a good idea, I like it! And in this case Oxford goes to Beijing, right.

As for Epics: what You propose certainly has merit, but I have to think more about it. Will say something more on Monday (I don't have much time to write in weekends usually!).
Quick thought (not definite by any means): putting it in Shanghai should mean that city has really good military production, while Beijing's hammers are high anyway (esp. with Bureaucracy) and more generalized. Your proposal means Beijing is wonderful and Shanghai only average until IW.
So I'd stay with both Epics in Shanghai and IW (when we get there) in Beijing.

Great Artist will bulb Drama or Divine Right or its pre-reqs. He can bulb Nationalism, but Divine Rights and other religious techs have higher priority, and I don't see a way to set up a Nationalism bulb without discovering Divine Right. So I'd say it's not worth it.

Agreed.

[Zero_1627]

A few turns were played. Guangzhou borders expanded, granting us much better visibility on one of possible Keshik attack routes . The other one (straight from South) remains partially hidden.
When we're talking about Mongols - a formation of 12 Keshiks was seen (deep in Mongol territory). Best trained of them is CombatIII Shock, while 3 are untrained (...which probably means unpromoted - I don't know if they even can build untrained Keshiks!). Only 2 of them are damaged. We see them when we don't have to, so maybe he isn't hiding them from _us_? (if Serdoa wanted to go at Beijing from North, as before, he could hide them one tile further and still move into same place in the first turn of attack).
Anyway, it's a good thing we have Catapults available!
Speaking about Catapults: this turn 2 shiny new siege engines were received by the military, while EoT 2 new Spears were trained.
Which means I can't find time to spread Hinduism and build buildings to make use of OR (not revolted yet, btw). But with skyrocketing power graphs (Mongol/Celtic) I can't keep military at previous levels... Hopefully graphs mean their cities are busy with units, too!


Our order of battle:
2 Archers (defending Beijing and Shanghai)
2 Chariots (somewhere between Beijing and Guangzhou)
3 Catapults (somewhere between Beijing and Guangzhou)
4 Axemen (1 in Guangzhou, 2 in Beijing or nearby, 1 on Marble)
6-7 Spearmen (with 2 more coming in EoT) (1-2 in or near Beijing, 2 on or near Marble, 3 in or near Guangzhou)

[Zero_1627]

The Plan
or what to do during weekend

General plan
Don't be surprised by way too much horsemobile troops! I plan to split Catapult/Spear force (one group protects Guangzhou, the other Beijing and Shanghai). Guangzhou force will be stronger - Beijing and Shanghai, between their hammer output and whip availablity, can create new defeders very fast. Guangzhou can't.

Research
After researching Calendar (like EoT) put the dial to 0% and stockpile money reserves to reach Aesthetics->Literature. It should take 4 turns total - so we need reserve of about 150 Gold. I doubt we'll reach this point before I'm back. If You feel we have military problems we may use said reserve to research military tech(s) (probably Archery->HbR for Horse Archers), but I hope to avoid it right now. EDIT: with skyrocketing graphs taking some military tech first may be wise. We have to stockpile gold first anyway, so it's not a decision we need today. Main options are Archery->HbR (will help graph so we look better and HAs are much better than Chariots) or Metal Casting (which is in our tech path anyway and will give us Forges, as well as increased graph - but no real new defensive unit). If Metal Casting - Forge becomes priority building everywhere, to be whipped.
Next in research plan is Priesthood->Code of Laws->Metal Casting. Priesthood is essentially a free tech - it's 52 beakers, and +20% on CoL should give us about 50 beakers by my count . Both Temples and Courthouses are sorely needed (as are Forges!).
Temporary technology I'll research while at 0% will probably be Priesthood (it's cheap enough that finishing it shouldn't delay anything else, and I'm afraid to start a costly tech without the means to finish it when we may be forced to detour).

Religion
We need to pause military in Shanghai to build at least 1 missionary (switch to OR to make missionary available) - he'll spread Hinduism in Beijing and Beijing will produce Missionary for Guangzhou. We want to get OR bonus for any buildings we'll be (hopefully) creating soon... I plan that missionary to be next build (unless enemies show up on our borders, in this case plans obviously change).

Cities
Beijing and Guangzhou (in this order) need Hinduism (which will increase their happy cap, too!). Just a thought: does 'no random events' mean no religion spread? I saw no spread and no forest growth in this game...
Beijing: Missionary for Guangzhou when available, buildings whenever able to pause military (or when TGL becomes available...). May whip if convenient (eg. building Colosseum with 1 or 2-pop whip is probably a very good idea! but still takes 2 turns).
Shanghai: Missionary!!! otherwise military, buildings when able to pause military (Colosseum... and later Heroic Epic).
Guangzhou: switch to growth when tiles are available (without stopping mining Gems!), whip buildings ASAP (...which doesn't mean very soon). OR will help - when we spread Hinduism there...

Workers
In general - most priority worker actions are right on the border and visible for opponent(s). In this case I try to keep proper escort (2 Spears) and back off when seriously threatened. Also, I think that usually no more than 2 workers on such tile is good idea (2 Spears aren't invincible vs Shock Keshiks/Horse Archers).
Southern group: 4 workers near Guangzhou. Priority is getting Banana plantations online, but Sugar and (if possible) second Gems are nice too. Cutting down all jungle on tiles in range 1 of city would be nice, too (in range 2 - nice but very long and dangerous, there are other priorities).
Northern group: 3 Workers currently connecting Marble. Next priority should be Silver and Ivory, maybe Iron and finishing Beijing cottage on the way to use worker actions available (if Mongol attack doesn't come from this direction as before). There's also one more hill near Beijing which would look good with Mine!

Military
Keep appropriate defense in cities (not very strong, I'm afraid), with remaining units concentrated near Guangzhou/Beijing (behind them, from opponents' point of view). They'll be able to counterattack defended city and rush to the other side quicker than from city itself.
NOTE: as many units are defending/sleeping in quick-reaction tiles, make sure You know what troops are nearby before moving!

Aggressive plans
There are none. Opportunity strikes vs Celts (and only Celts) are ok, and of course killing any scout that wanders too close (last time I tried it 2 Chariots were lost for no gain... but there's always risk). We don't want to draw attention, we don't want to weaken Mayans any more, our army structure isn't good for force projection outside our borders.

Defensive plans
Enemy recon units may be killed whenever possible. In case of serious invasion - the plan is to let them close while moving in reinforcements. This will allow some pillaging, hopefully counterattack will make any opponent pay heavily. Outlying resources are especially vulnerable, but it can't be helped (of course some HAs will help, if we decide to go this way).

Main threat axes
Mongols from the north - like before, but with bridges we should be better positioned to repel such attack. Improvements North of Beijing will suffer, but we have a lot of depth to play with.
Mongols from the South - most dangerous option, because if they want to hide, the moment we see advancing Keshiks is a turn before they can strike the city. Also, it's worst-defensible city (only +40% culture, no hill). I try to keep most mobile forces nearby.
Celts at Guangzhou (from W/NW) - like Mongols, but we should see them at least a turn earlier than Mongols.
Celts at our Gold/Copper mines - tactical strike, but it would be difficult to defend from - especially if they do it in force. But we can't be strong everywhere. We have Iron as backup, but it's not yet connected.
Celts at Shanghai (from NE) - not much more depth than Guangzhou, but more defensible city able to build/whip defense. Also, Beijing is near, and mobile defenders are able to quickly reinforce both cities.
Mayans are not expected to be aggressive.



Please post here if You have any questions/doubts, I'll play tomorrow morning (and maybe tomorrow evening) and should be able to answer. From Thursday I'm away, and back on Sunday evening (You may leave Sunday evening save to me - I'll play it on Monday morning as usual, _maybe_ late Sunday evening).
Have fun and don't let them kill our cities!


EDIT2: I'm more and more inclined to get Metal Casting as next tech after Calendar. If we decide so, I won't put research into Priesthood now (and tech path will look like Metal Casting->Aesthetics->Literature->Priesthood->Code of Laws). MC is pricy at 397 beakers, but that's still 3 turns at current 100% output even if no one else knows it - so 120 gold reserve should be plenty (maybe even 100 if we can accept decreasing slider last turn).

[yuris125]

This all sounds good. I'll take a look at the save today or tomorrow and ask if I have any doubts/concerns

[Zero_1627]

We're now officially organized religiously (have to be organized in at least one aspect...). Costs us 2 extra Gold/turn, but Shanghai already began a Missionary. Beijing began Colosseum (not yet Organized...). Building plantation on jungle takes ages! (7 worker turns)

Gold income looks good (1 turn of 100% gold gives a bit more than 1 turn of 100% science takes).

I decided to take tech path of Metal Casting->Aesthetics->Literature(->Priesthood->CoL), so Forges will become priority builds soon (to be whipped).
Guangzhou will probably keep building Market until it'll be able to whip Forge (pop 8 or so - but once both Banana Plantations are online it shouldn't be that far away)

NOTE: I micromanage 2 main cities turn-to-turn, so you'll need to look at them too, because citizen allocation may seem strange

Also, I'm toying with the idea of City Walls... additional +50% defensive bonus looks good. Pity that city that needs them most can't really afford them...

[yuris125]

Let me know if you play this turn. I'll take it in about 3 hours if you don't tell me otherwise

[Zero_1627]

I will play now!
(...)OK, turn played. That's last turn played by me 'till Sunday evening.

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Celtic Pride sent a recon party (Horse Archer, Chariot and Dog Soldier) near Guangzhou. If they close - I moved entire reserve to strike at them (shouldn't really be needed...). One Spear is kept a tile back in case 2-movers go for gold - that and a pair of Chariots should be enough to deal with them. If they do not move in next turn - some troops should return to covering Beijing and Shanghai.


Power graph says that Mongols fight with Mayans (better than with us, though!) - Mayan losses are heavier, Sex is no longer in top 5 - probably whipped.

Micro plans (that's just plans, You may do otherwise if You think it's better):
- Missionary spreads religion in Beijing
- Shanghai either starts a Colosseum (and completes it following turn by whip) or builds some military (most needed, in my opinion, are a Catapult and one or two Chariots)
- Beijing has scheduled forest cut next turn (200AD) - Marble will come online. That should be enough to finish Colosseum without whipping together with population growth (especially as it'll receive Organized Hinduism). Next planned is Missionary for Guangzhou, but it's not absolutely necessary right now - some military is also an option (religion in Guangzhou will be needed in case of any whipping - but that's some turns from now).
- first Banana Plantation should come online AD200 - that's the one with 4 workers on it (1 worker turn remaining, other workers may go to interior plantation). Work Bananas ASAP, Guangzhou needs population to whip!